Monday, April 15, 2013

Viewer Comments and Presentation Ideas

A 14 year old, homeschooled, computer-savvy male: When I asked him to do it, he said that he usually didn't like "super-annotated" videos on youtube, but when he heard it was in place of class he was all ears. He had to find the Brave New Worlds by searching the youtube account (eRenaissance2) <hard to find>. He thought it was funny and kinda silly. He said he "failed miserably" at the quiz, so he just clicked through all the answers until he found the right one. He wanted to keep going after the first (cannibals) adventure because he thought it was hilarious, so he went on to the Winthrop/America challenge. He said he guessed right on those quiz questions. He didn't understand Blazing World at all because he'd never even heard of it.
"Everything was laid out pretty well... it was fun... way better than sitting in a classroom..." It sounds like the narrative really helped him understand what was going on.

A 26 year old, BYU grad student, barely ever gets online: "I lost patience with the thing about two minutes in. It was funny, though. It's just not my learning style I guess." I think he would've enjoyed the Ad Fontes videos more than the Brave New World or Typographia ones. It's great that we have different levels of engagement, though!

My mom needed extensive coaching to find the beginning of the video chains, but then she thought they were hilarious. She needed help figuring out how you would use the curriculum in a home school course, too. We assume some level of Renaissance awareness (basics: when/where are we talking about? what are the themes?) that many readers and even educators may not have. The intro video (map video) should probably address those things (my fault!!).

Humanism:
Our project involved evolution and a focus on the creative (instead of dogmatic) learning experience. Each person was encouraged to work on the problem individually, and we got about 100 variations of the Renaissance (i.e. your letter greatly pleased me) in video, text, essay, collaborative essay, intro, tweethis, the Tempest, wiki, blog, etc!!
If we aren't talking about the experience of the project in another group, I think it would be a great point in Humanism (I liked what Jerrick said, though, about the grade experience for Plough Boys, and the evolution of the project like Julie Ann was talking about).